24. Logic and Emotion (Perceptions)

Though we have powerful minds and amazing technology, we are not really living in an enlightened age. Swamped with information and inundated by images that seem to tell us what to think, we are rarely guided in the how of thinking. Without realizing it, we may be tethered to unfulfilled promises of pleasure and success by our own unexamined acceptance of social structure, culture, custom, and environment. Is it any wonder that so many of us in this fast-paced world are feeling washed out by worry, anxiety, or a general feeling of malaise?

As we look back through time, it is not hard to see why so many different religions and spiritual systems have continually developed. No other binding force could be as strong as the acknowledgment of a common source. Sharing a similar belief system connects us to each other, regardless of what our beliefs entail.

Many belief systems promise spiritual enlightenment. We may agree with some and find others ludicrous or dangerous. But few are wrong per se; they merely vary in the ways they permit growth or impede it. Whether a particular belief disappears eventually, or gains wider acceptance, depends on its accessibility, practicality, and the amount of interdependence and autonomy it permits and encourages.

Our present system is ancient Aristotelian, external and deceptively easy to live by because it places almost all the weight of logic on sensual experience: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. If an idea or belief is not verifiable by presently accepted forms of logic, it is deemed inadmissible, unsubstantiated, or even unreal! Aristotle (logically) believed that logic and reason were the primary means with which humankind could reach the ultimate truth and that emotion or passion detracted from our ability to develop flawless logic. That’s not such an earth-shattering assumption! We all could suggest the same notion, as long as we acknowledge that a natural progression of thought must encompass all aspects of nature. Logic and reason are necessary in order to make sense of what might seem chaotic but without emotion, logic and reason have no reason to exist. Without emotion, there would be no creativity, no well from which potentiality might be drawn to be measured, weighed, and formed by logic and reason.